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Paley Center TV Mixtapes

Compilations from Our CollectionScreening at The Paley Center for MediaIn the Bennack Theater at 25 West 52 Street, NYCWednesdays and Friday at 4:30 pmThursdays at 1:10 pm and 6:00 pm; Saturdays & Sundays at 2:00 pm

Remember the humble, lovingly crafted mixtape, the ultimate homemade expression of an individual’s musical sensibility, a carrier of secret messages, an opportunity for startling juxtapositions and unfiltered access to “the good stuff?” The Paley Center, in a fit of nostalgia and sudden inspiration, asks, “What if there were mixtapes for television?”

Every month the Paley Center will present special screenings culled from our massive collection, curated to provide a unique viewing experience … audiences can expect classic episodes from favorite series enhanced by exclusive Paley Center content, original compilations of the weird and wonderful created for this series, and selections from rare programs unavailable anywhere else. Plus there is the thrill of seeing it all on the big screen, with great sound.

We recall the days when if you liked someone, you made them a tape. We like you. We hope you enjoy these TV mixtapes…and no skipping!

Tweet As You WatchWe hope you'll share your thoughts, reactions, knowledge, factoids about the programs in our mixtape compilations from the theater. Use #TVMixTapes.

Christmas Carols: A Scrooge Mash-UpDecember 2012

Arguably the most famous and familiar holiday story ever written, Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol continues to enchant generation after generation and inspire countless adaptations, with more, no doubt, yet to come. Since everyone has their particular favorite dramatization, the Paley Center presents its own “Scrooge mash-up,” so to speak. The entire story will be told using clips from versions starring Mr. Magoo, Patrick Stewart, and Basil Rathbone among others, as well as the tale as interpreted by the casts of such shows as The Flintstones and Bugs Bunny.

This #TVMixtapes celebrates the Charles Dickens Bicentenary. A very special thanks to author Fred Guida.

Summer “Camp” Starting July 5, 2012

Welcome to a compilation of television’s most outrageous, campy, and head-scratching moments—a celebration of the weird, wild, and wacky side of the small screen, culling only the best moments in discrete chunks for the YouTube generation. We excerpt the craziest scenes from afterschool specials, old network celebrity spectaculars, outdated training and educational films, camp classic television movies, bizarre music videos, and other outré ephemera. A surefire hit for the Gen-X audience and available exclusively at the Paley Center.

Hotter than HellmouthAugust 2012

Hell hath no fury like a demon scorned … or something like that. Join us as we celebrate the dog days of August in air-conditioned bliss with this really creepy compilation of television programming spotlighting emissaries from hell (both fictional and not), anchored by “Once More With Feeling,” the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which will be screened in its entirety. (Note: the full Buffy episode begins approx. one hour into this 2 hour #TVMixTapes screening.)

We don’t want to give too much away, and while you can certainly expect clips from iconic spine-chillers like Twin Peaks, The X-Files, and The Night Stalker, we are also hell-bent on making you laugh—the Devil be damned!—and surprising you with highlights from our collection of commercials, international programs, talk shows, and music videos, plus a musical montage we’ve produced especially for the occasion (with particular resonance for Friday Night Lights fans).

Dueling Star Treks September 2012

Star Trek: The Next Generation celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary in September, and with this specially produced compilation the Paley Center boldly goes where thousands and thousands have gone before, tackling the red-hot-button question of whether The Next Generation was also the greatest generation, or whether that honor belongs instead to the original series. Was the first Star Trek too campy? Next Generation too earnest? Beverly Crusher or Bones McCoy? Spock or Data? Kirk’s bare chest or Picard’s bare head? We will shy away from no issue, illustrating our points through a deft selection of clips featuring moments from both shows, plus a groovy musical montage set to the music of Harry Nilsson, who always wanted to be a spaceman. This package also includes the screening in its entirety of “The Inner Light,” chosen in an online Paley Center poll as the best episode ever of The Next Generation.

TV Dreamscapes Starts Saturday, October 6, 2012, at 2:00pm

For the month of chills and thrills, the Paley Center brings you a sixty-minute mixtape that shows the truly frightful—as well as the lighthearted—dreamscapes that have seeped out of our collective unconscious and into our daily TV viewing over the years. The creepy/scary stuff will come from the usual suspects—Twilight Zone, Twin Peaks, Buffy the Vampire Slayer—joined with the more psychological hauntings of Six Feet Under and M*A*S*H. Then we'll look to I Love Lucy, Seinfeld, and Absolutely Fabulous for the lighter side of our neuroses.

Please note: An Evening with Craig Ferguson is on Thursday, October 4, 2012, and will take place in the Bennack Theater; TV Dreamscapes will be held off until Saturday, October 6, 2012.

James Bond @ 50November 2012

This groovy Paley Center TV Mixtape screening in November (in conjunction with the release of Skyfall, the latest James Bond film), salutes Bondmania: the spy craze that infiltrated the pop-culture scene in the sixties following the release of the first Bond film, Dr. No, fifty years ago. Believe us, we’ve got it covered, from Bond’s rarely seen first screen appearance (in the 1954 television version of Casino Royale) to Brit imports like The Avengers, Secret Agent, The Prisoner, and The Saint to situation comedies like Get Smart to memorable flops like Amos Burke, Secret Agent, and Blue Light to generic icons like The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Wild Wild West, I Spy, and Mission: Impossible, plus a surprise or two. Nancy Sinatra warbling Last of the Secret Agents? Check. Smokey Robinson crooning Come Spy with Me? Check. Remember when spies were cool cats (and chicks) who drove fancy cars, prowled around in Savile Row suits and sexy catsuits, talked into shoe phones, and battled nefarious, larger-than-life villains employed by vast international criminal conspiracies that went by cryptic appellations like SMERSH, SPECTRE, KAOS, and THRUSH? Long live the sixties!